Grab your bear can or camp chair, kick your feet up and chew the fat about anything Sierra Nevada related that doesn't quite fit in any of the other forums. Within reason, (and the HST rules and guidelines) this is also an anything goes forum. Tell stories, discuss wilderness issues, music, or whatever else the High Sierra stirs up in your mind.

good coffee (grounds) takes a lot of thought. And I'm laid up with gout and nothing better to do.

But seriously, if sense was common and people used it, we wouldn't be having this discussion and we wouldn't need laws regarding it. Which, by the way, you can be cited for leaving food, including coffee grounds (there is no Starbucks clause in the CFR).

I won't be surprised to see a reverse osmosis urine filter win editors choice in Backpacking Mag. soon

Good on the OP for being conscientious enough to ask about coffee grounds, but c'mon... "Pack it in, pack it out", from my understanding, has always referred to non-biodegradable items.

As for me, after toting around a backpackers French press and real coffee for a couple of seasons, I switched to instant (Via, etc.). Love the simplicity, less weight, no coffee grounds, etc. I'm a coffee snob at home... 'roughing-it' with instant on climbing trips is no biggie.

All right. I've had my coffee, tea actually, the leaves are in the compost, so now it's time for the

There is no biodegradable exemption or "except when wet" exemption, or any other exemption, to the CFR (Code of Federal Regulations) when it comes to trash in Wilderness.

There is no recycling service, or composting, so it is not OK to leave food scraps, TP, tin cans, orange peels or anything else that might bio or photo degrad over time. I can see the look on the rangers face when you tell them: " but my Cheerio's were wet, so I left them".

We can talk about the reasons why the law doesn't allow for dumping of "organic" material (animals digging it up, un-sightly, it just doesn't belong there etc) but that really isn't the point.

The original poster asked if it was ok to dump coffee grounds (I think?), and by law, it's not. I would think as a responsible forum, we would want those going into the Sierra to respect the laws required for their visit (whether we do or not).

We all decide which rules we are going to break, bend or disregard, and nothing I say is going to change that. But let's at least steer people in the lawful direction and let them figure out what rules they will break on their own.

In the meantime, when an angry bear comes after me with a caffeine headache, I'll know which list members to come after

BTW, does HST have a neighborhood cleanup day? I found a camp (a few years old) out on the end of San Joaquin Ridge that someone left (probably because it was wet). It is biodegrading/composting, but it needs to come out. Any interest?

John Dittli wrote:The original poster asked if it was ok to dump coffee grounds (I think?), and by law, it's not. I would think as a responsible forum, we would want those going into the Sierra to respect the laws required for their visit (whether we do or not).

We all decide which rules we are going to break, bend or disregard, and nothing I say is going to change that. But let's at least steer people in the lawful direction and let them figure out what rules they will break on their own.

I wasn't asking about the legality of it. I wanted to know if was harmful to the environment and, if so, in what way exactly. Also, does any harm depend on the type of terrain, elevation, vegetation, soil, precipitation, and level of human visitation?